It’s time to start planning your trip to the nation’s capital in February 2019 for the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. Join 1,200+ of your colleagues for what is sure to be the anti-hunger community’s biggest and best conference yet!

#DYK that 12.5 million low-income children accessed #schoolbreakfast on an average school day during the 2017–2018 SY? Learn how many children get the nutrition they need from school breakfast in your state with @fractweets new school breakfast report: bit.ly/2Bj2uTE

Latest Report

School Breakfast Program

Report Finds More Low-Income Children Start Their Day With a Healthy School Breakfast; Too Many Still Missing Out
This annual report analyzes participation in the School Breakfast Program among low-income children nationally and in each state and the District of Columbia for the 2017–2018 school year. The report also features best practices for increasing participation in the program, including breakfast after the bell models and community eligibility.

FRAC Chat

National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) is a weeklong celebration of the nation’s School Breakfast Program, which provides more than 14.6 million children — five out of six of them low-income — a nutritious morning meal each day. This year’s NSBW takes place March 4–8, 2019, which means it is time for schools to start planning NSBW celebrations to raise awareness about the benefits of participating in the School Breakfast Program.

FRAC released the latest version of its annual School Breakfast Scorecard, which measures the reach of the federal School Breakfast Program nationally and in each state during the 2017–2018 school year.

From policy wonks to health professionals to grassroots advocates to anti-hunger program service providers, the conference will have something for everyone, ensuring that every attendee will return home with new skills, resources, and tools to use in the fight to end hunger. See below for just a few examples of what’s in store (and be sure to view the full conference agenda).

Restoring the value of the minimum wage — and helping families cover basic needs — is essential to addressing hunger. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not increased since 2009. A more adequate minimum wage would foster the nation’s economic strength and growth to be shared in more equitable ways. Low-income workers and their families would benefit the most from a higher minimum wage, leading to reduced poverty, hunger, and income inequality.

From FRAC, the Economic Policy Institute, and the National Employment Law Project.

The monthly benefits provided by SNAP enhance the foodpurchasing power of eligible low-income individuals and families. However, as described by many studies, including one by the Institute of Medicine, the greatest shortcoming of SNAP is that benefits for most households are not enough to get through the entire month without hunger or being forced to sacrifice nutrition quality. This limitation persists even in the face of overwhelming evidence on the gains from more adequate monthly SNAP benefits.

This paper briefly analyzes why SNAP benefits are inadequate, reviews the body of research showing positive effects from more adequate SNAP benefits, and concludes with some of the key policy solutions that can improve benefit adequacy.

More than 40 million Americans are living in households that are food insecure. Even as the economy has improved, millions of families have been left behind, and the need for food assistance remains high. Congress should deepen its historically bipartisan commitment to programs that provide food assistance to vulnerable low-income households by protecting the structure of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the other federal nutrition programs, and by sufficiently funding them to address hunger in America.